Unfortunately, it’s time to think about having an estate sale for my parents belongings. I’ve gone through the home and taken the sentimental items and brought them to my home. I need to have the house furnishings, china, silver service, crystal, washer dryer, etc., etc. sold so I can paint then list their home for sale.
I don’t have the time to advertise and then sit there trying to sell everything. I’ve contacted Estate sale groups to discuss this. The ones I’ve talked to pretty much want the keys to the house and me to stay as far away as possible while they do their thing. They do promise to turn over a bare, clean house when they are done. Apparently I have nothing to say about the sales price either. The fees run 35 to 45% of the sale price, depending on the amount of stuff in the house.
Has anyone dealt with the estate sale companies? Are there any pitfalls, nightmares or other things that I should be aware of? What about hidden treasures? I believe my parents had several Krugerrand in the home but I can’t find them. Of course, I’m thinking they might find them, and I’ll never know it.
I have to make the arrangements within the next week. Any advice from y’all would be deeply appreciated.
I wouldn’t even consider having a “professional” firm that you don’t know well even in the house, much less run the sale. It’s like inviting thieves in, which they may well be. Either take the time to do it yourself or call the Salvation Army to come pick it all up.
When you price things, remember the object is to** get rid of it**, not make gobs of money. Books go for .25 or .50, clothes $.25 to 2., furniture from .50 to $20. Yard Sales, Estate Sales, Garage Sales are my hobby, I go to all of them to buy interesting junk that grabs my fancy. I usually wind up holding a sale of my own to sell the junk I bought last year. Oh, be sure to have your sale on a Saturday or Sunday, or even on both days, days that most people have off. Advertise in a local bargain hunter style of paper with a clear street address. Post a few signs in the neighborhood too.
I’m having an estate sale even as we speak. A company is handling everything: sorting, pricing, advertising, donating what doesn’t sell to charity, and hauling trash to the dump. They take the first $2,000 up to 30%. I anticipate netting around $5,000, but even if I didn’t make a dime, it would be worth it not to have to mess with it. There are reputable companies. Might be able to get referrals from local nursing homes.
Just a note:
Were your parent Depression Era or influenced that way? I ask because my mother-in-law passed and we (the kids) accidently found a $20 bill falling out of a book. Some folks would stash a spare $5, $10, $20 in books or other hiding places as an altenative to banks. Our search turned up (no-lie) just over $14,000.00 and we may have missed some. She lived in near poverty scrimping on everything and focused on making everything last. It was ingrained in her.
I’d vote for the self-sale and then everything to the local charities/dump. More work but you get to meet nice, wierd, and really strange people. Price things cheap.
With my parents, it was jars of coins stashed in boxes in closets. The pre-1964 quarters had appreciated nicely. The wheatback and steel pennies hadn’t. And I think that in her later years Mom found collecting loose change comforting.
There were odd boxes of change in drawers or on shelves. There were bowls of change here and there. And I guess she discovered that her pill bottles were just the right size for quarters. Those were in the medicine cabinet and sitting on her dresser.
The amount of stuff is overwhelming. There are Boyd’s bears (resin), about 120 of the little things. Spode china, crystal stuff. Etc. I have no idea what to do with any of this and I don’t want to keep it. I can’t imagine cleaning all 120 of those little bear creatures once a year, not to mention storing china and crystal in my already crowded home.
This all makes me thing that your treasures are eventually someone else’s problem. Why the hell can’t they take it with them.
Around here, this is how it would go down: You find an auctioneer, and he comes to the house to conduct the sale. You become the bottleneck that every item going in the sale has to go through. You move the items out the door and to the tables or into the hands of helpers. No one goes in the house. If you don’t have room at the house for an auction, clear out the front room to include only what will be going to the sale. As the helpers remove the items to go on the truck, you bring more out. They don’t go into the rest of the house unless you direct them to remove a particular heavy piece of furniture or you want them to go into an area you have ‘cleared.’
If you think there are hidden treasures in the floorboards, in books or elsewhere, this is the only way you can make sure you don’t give them away, you can’t hire it done. It has to be you or people you know and trust doing the searching/reviewing.
Reputable or not, if I was a poorly paid grunt working as a packmule for one of these companies and I discovered hidden gold, it would be hard to share that discovery.
Is the house in more of a rural, suburban or urban area?
The house is in a 1600 unit senior (55+) community. It’s a gated community with full time security. A pass is required to gain access unless you’re a resident. That, plus the CC&R’s don’t allow garage sales, but Estate sales are okay. That’s why this appears to be my best option.
I’m going to meet with a rep from one of the estate sale companies this Thursday. We’ll see what they have to offer.
